Knitted pile fabrics



July 10, 1962 J. L. HUBBARD 3,043,124 7 KNITTED PILE FABRICS OriginalFiled July 25, 195'? 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 \l \I I l 741% 2 3, an; 5:5 trivia5 in 30 :3

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A T TUPNEYS I Original application July 25, 1957,

United States Patent 3,043,124 KNITTED PILE FABRICS John L. Hubbard,Cornwall, N. assignor to The Firth CarpetCompany, Inc., New York, NIY.,a corporation of New York Ser. No. 674,142, new Patent No. 2,971,359,dated Feb. 14, 1961. Divided and this application May 23, 1960, Ser. No.

5 Claims. (Cl. 66-191) This invention relates to knitted pile fabricswherein the pile yarn is held by diagonal warps.

In most knitted pile fabrics, especially'those pile fabrics made on afiat bed knitting machine, the pile is created either as a warp stitchwith extended loop, or as a pile loop held between two adjacent warpstitches wherein the ends of the loop are tied into the bight of bothwarp stitches, or as an individual thread going up and down abovebacking wefts.

The novelty of the construction described herein lies in the fact thatthe pile tufts are held by the diagonal warp yarn extending back andforth between adjacent warp rows in successive courses. The method ofmaking such a fabric is explained in my co-pending application SerialNo. 674,142, filed July 25, 1957, now Patent No. 2,971,359.

It is an object of this invention to provide a knitted pile fabricwherein pile tufts are formed below the warp ends of the knitted fabricand above the backing wefts of said fabric.

It is another object of this invention to provide a knitted pile fabrichaving a warp knitted tricot base with backing wefts being laid throughthe bights of the warp stitches of the tricot base and pile tufts heldbetween adjacent warp stitch rows by warp ends crossing diagonally fromone warp row to the next warp row in the next succeeding course.

It is yet another object to provide a knitted pile fabric as abovewherein a sizing is applied to the base.

These and other objects will be better understood by reference to thefollowing detailed description and drawings, showing, by way of example,a preferred embodiment of this invention, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic enlarged view of the fabric construction ofthis invention; and

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic enlarged view of the fabric constructionwithout the inserted pile face yarns.

Patented July 10, 1962 ice the lower the gauge number is the more,percentage-wise,

' the amount of shrinkage of such a warp tricot knit con- Referring toFIGURE 2, which is a generally known flat construction without pile, thefigure comprises courses 1-5 with warp rows of stitches 6-9 made up ofwarp yarns 10-14. As may be seen from this figure, the base constructionis not novel in itself in that bights of stitches are formed by adjacentneedles, which is common in fiat knitting. However, instead of merelyhaving a knitted fabric of the warp tricot type, backing weft threads30, 31 and 32 extend back and forth in successive courses over at leastthree warp rows and are held within the fabric by the bights of theadjacent warp stitches. More specifically, the backing weft thread 30goes over the warp stitches in warp rows 6, 7 and 8 in Course 1 andreturns, in Course 2, back over the warp stitches in warp rows 8, 7 and6. Backing weft thread 33, starting in Course 1, crosses warp rows 7, 8and 9 in that Course and returns to warp row 7 in Course 2 going backthrough the bights of stitches in rows 9 and 8 also.

This construction of backing wefts has a multiple purpose when used in apile fabric as outlined in this invention. As is well-known to thosefamiliar with the art of knitting, the warp tricot knit by itself issubject to considerable shrinkage, particularly in course materialswhere a gauge of 12 or less is being used. It has been found thatstruction will be. If a turf is inserted around the warp thread 11 forinstance, without having backing wefts 30, 31 and 32 crossing underneaththis warp thread, the tuft would fall out since there is nothing beneathit to prevent it from doing so. Furthermore, if a pile fabric as coarseas those used in the upholstery and floor covering fields is made, ashrinkage such as is common in a tricot weave would be mostunsatisfactory because the coarse yarns used would not merely be shrunkby virtue of the back and forth crossing warp ends, but would alsotangle and make the end product unstable. Therefore, the backing threadswhich are laid in, back and forth across three chain stitches, not onlyprovide the pile tufts with a backing which holds them in place, butalso serve to keep the fabric from excessive shrinkage. It has beenfound that this is particularly true if materials for the backing weftare used which have a minimum amount of stretchability or elasticity. Inthe case of upholstery it was found that, even though cotton is asatisfactory product, fine linen, ramie or similar materials give amaximum prevention of shrinkage in the width of the fabric. In the caseof floor covering it has been found that the use of jute, which is theprimary backing material for floor coverings in the woven field, givesthe least amount of shrinkage widthwise and aids considerably instabilizing the fabric of this invention.

It should be noted that the backing wefts cross three warp rows ofstitches; this does not have to be the case. It is merely an indicationto show that three backing wefts can be laid in within the same coursejust as easily as one. If only two backing wefts are desired within onecourse the threading of the backing wefts can be the same as described,one for each warp end, but instead of shifting backing weft 30, forinstance, across three warp rows of stitches 6, 7 and 8 within the samecourse, it will only be laid in between two warp rows of stitches, 6 and7 for instance. If this is followed through with only the backing wefts,only two of them will be next to each other in the same course. In otherwords, if there are as many backing wefts as there are warp ends thenthe number of backing wefts within one course depends on how many warprows of stitches these backing wefts are laid across within the samecourse. I

Referring to FIGURE 1, the pile tufts may be inserted in various ways sothat each is positioned around and beneath a warp thread which crossesdiagonally from a warp stitch in a given course and warp row to the warpstitch in the next adjacent warp row in the next course. As shown inFIGURE 1, Course 1, the U-shaped pile tuft 40 is underneath warp end 11and above backing wefts 30, 31 and 33, thus the closed end of theU-shaped pile tuft 40 is held down by the warp end 11 which extendsdiagonally from the bight of the stitch formed prior to the formation ofthe stitch in Course 1 and warp row 6 over to warp row 7, thus creatinga diagonal straight and tight thread 11 holding down the pile tuft 40.Warp end 11 next travels back from warp row 7 to warp row 6 in Course 2forming its bight within Course 2 and holding down the U part of piletuft 42 between warp rows of stitches 6 and 7. At the same time, backingwefts 33, 30 and 31 have also returned into the space between warp rows6 and 7 in Course 2 and support the tuft 42 beneath warp end 11. Thispattern of movement of the warp ends is followed throughout the fabric,the pile tufts always being helddown by the diagonal warp ends as theyproceed diagonally from one warp row to the next adjacent warp row inthe next succeeding course.

It is advantageous to have the pile tightly held in between the backingand the crossing warp threads similar to the way they are interlaced ina woven pile fabric. The drawing is exaggerated, actually the warp rowsand the U counterpart.

In order to make the fabric more substantial and more 1, like a wovenfabric it is found advantageous to size the backing of the fabric withmaterials similar to those with which comparable woven fabrics aresized. Starches, latexes and plastic coatings, as well as foam coatingsfor fabrics have been found a valuable addition to make this asatisfactory commercial product. In the case of upholstery and floorcoverings the sizing not only serves as a stabilizer for the fabricitself but also creates a tuft bind by seeping slightly through thebacking wefts and adhering the U part of the pile tightly to both thewarp end which it crosses as well as to the backing weft above which itlies.

This application is a division of my co-pending application Serial NO.674,142, filed July 25, 1957, now Patent No. 2,971,359.

What I claim as novel and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

l. A knitted pile fabric comprising a warp knitted tricot base, backingwefts extending back and forth in successive courses, said wefts beinglaid across the bights of the warp stitch loops of said n'icot base, andpile tufts held down between adjacent warp stitch rows by warp endsextending diagonally from one warp row in a given course to the nextadjacent warp row in the next succwding course.

2. A knitted pile fabric comprising parallel rows of bights of warpstitch loops, said loops being formed by warp ends extending diagonallyback and forth with respect to adjacent rows of bights of stitches insuccessive courses, backing wefts extending back and forth in successivecourses, said wefts being laid in through the bights of the warpstitches, and pile tufts held between the warp rows of stitches by thediagonal warp ends and above the laid in backing wefts.

3. A knitted pile fabric comprising parallel wales of bights of warpstitches, said warp stitches 'being interconnected and formed by warpends extending back and forth through adjacent bights of stitches inadjacent wales and in successive courses, backing wefts laid across atleast three wales of bights of warp stitches, said wefts extending backand forth in successive courses, and pile tufts held beneath the warpends and above the backing wefts between adjacent wales of warp stitchesand the back side of the fabric having sizing applied thereto.

4. A knitted pile fabric as described in claim 3 wherein all the pileyarns are U tufts thereby creating a pile surface of the velvet type.

5. A knitted pile fabric floor covering comprising a tricot type warpbase with warp ends extending back and forth between adjacent wales ofstitches in successive courses, backing wefts equal in number of ends tothe warp ends extending back and forth over at least three wales of warpstitches in successive courses, U-shaped pile tufts equal in number tothe number of stitches, said tufts being held beneath the crossing warpends between adjacent wales of warp stitches and above the backingwefts, and the backing of said floor covering being provided with asizing which seem-es the warp, the backing wefts and the lower portionof the pile tufts together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,475,325 Springthorpe Nov. 27, 1923 2,194,044 Kappler Mar. 19, 19402,718,132 Herrnstadt Sept. 20, 1955 2,899,813 Herrnstadt et al Aug. 18,1959 2,934,924 Herrnstadt May 3, 1960 2,936,513 lbach May 17, 1960

